For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The connotation of this proverb is that even if they do catch game, they cannot be bothered to put out the effort to cook it. On the other hand, those who are successful make use of everything they can from the game they catch and the plants they harvest. This proverb teaches us to make productive use of all the resources which come our way. This proverb is a challenge to find productive uses to put what is otherwise waste.

    This psalm gives us an example of how we should pray when we face difficult times. The psalmist calls on God for rescue, but he acknowledges that in order to be rescued by God people need to turn to God. I love this phrasing from the NLT:

Turn us again to yourself, O God.
Make your face shine down upon us.
Only then will we be saved.

He repeats it three times, each time exalting God even more…”O God”, “O God of Heaven’s Armies”, and “O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies”. Let us beg God to turn us again to Him, acknowledging His power and glory.

    Jesus gives us warning against seeking honour for ourselves. Jesus warns us against assuming positions of high honour for ourselves because it will be incredibly embarrassing if we have to yield them to someone more deserving. Instead, we should assume positions of low prestige. If we do the latter, we will be even more honoured when the host of the event pulls us out to put us in a position of prestige. This advice is not just about events regarding this world. It is of even greater import in heavenly matters, where the host is God Himself.
    Accompanying that advice, Jesus advises us not to throw feasts for those who can reciprocate. Instead of inviting our family and rich neighbours to our parties, we should invite the poor, the blind, the lame, and the crippled, those who will be unable to repay us by inviting us to their parties. When He gives this advice, Jesus tells us that God will repay us for doing this. However, I think He was also making a point about how we invite the better off as a subtle way of holding ourselves up to be admired, “Look at all the A-list people who come to my parties.”

    It is easy to overlook the significance of the memorial which Joshua had the Israelites set up after they crossed the Jordan. After all what is the big deal about a stack of twelve rocks? The thing we forget is that these were large rocks, not huge, but large. And they were all water polished. Water polished rocks have distinctive characteristics and looks. Geologists use those characteristics to identify places where there used to be streams and rivers. The memorial the Israelites built would have been a testimony to the fact that they walked through the Jordan on dry ground.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The lazy will not even take the effort to cook any game they catch, while the diligent will always find plenty to eat because they make use of everything they acquire. The godly follow a path which leads to life, they do not choose actions which result in death and destruction.

    Let us cry out to God and ask Him to turn us again to following Him. It is only by the power of His Spirit that we can be blessed and follow His will. We cannot do so on our own. It is only when God shows His face to us that we can experience the blessings that come from serving Him. I pray to God that He send out His Spirit and turn His people once more towards Him. I ask that He send His Spirit upon me and change me so that I serve His will in all that I do.

    Jesus was at a feast when He noticed that everyone was trying to sit in the seats of honour. Jesus then gives some advice that is not just about seating at a feast. He tells us that we should not attempt to honour ourselves; we should not put ourselves forward as someone deserving of honour. Rather we should be humble and assume that everyone present is more deserving of honour than ourselves. Jesus goes on from that to tell us that it is better to good things for those who cannot pay us back for our kindness. These two lessons go together. Do not do good things in order to receive recompense, whether that recompense is material or something insubstantial such as being honoured.
    Jesus followed this up by telling the story about the man who prepared and threw a banquet. When He sent out word that the meal was ready to those who had initially accepted His invitation, they all replied that they were too busy to come now. This is a clear reference to those who have lived a “religious” or “righteous” life believing that they had an “in” with God. The important thing is not that we were invited to God’s feast, nor that we accepted to invitation. The important thing is that we are ready to do His will when He says that now is the time. If we do not respond when God tells us it is time, our place will be taken by the alcoholics, the druggies, the dregs of the earth (not just the unfortunate who life has dealt a raw hand, but those who have chosen a self-destructive path). I think it is wonderful news that God will include these, but I do not want to be left out because I failed to answer the call.
    Jesus goes on to tell the crowd following Him that if they wish to follow Him they need to be willing to give up everything in this life, to the point of suffering a horrible death. It is important for us to count what following Him will cost us before we set out. There have been those who fell away because they discovered that the cost of following Christ was higher than they were willing to pay. In some cases I believe that if they had realized the cost when they chose to follow Christ, they would have done so anyway and when the time came they would have continued on. But because they had not realized the price they would need to pay, when the time came they felt betrayed and fell away from Christ. Following Christ will cost us everything which we have, even our very lives. If we are not willing to pay this price, we may as well never start down that road.
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    The people of Israel purified themselves the night before they were to set out to cross the Jordan. They went forth in faith and God stopped the flow of the Jordan River so that they could cross on dry ground. Unlike when they had crossed the Red Sea, this crossing was done where it could be witnessed by many people besides the Israelites. As they crossed the Jordan they gathered stones so as to make a memorial to remind future generations of what God had done for them. I will strive to purify myself when God has revealed that He is about to use me to demonstrate His power, even if it is only through something that does not deserve to be mentioned next to crossing the Jordan. In addition, this passage reminds us of the importance of creating memorials to remind ourselves of what God has done in our lives. These memorials will serve as a basis for strengthening our faith when we doubt and as an opportunity to tell others of the wonderful things God has done for us.